28:12 aladder. Probably a vast stone ramp with steps. The phrase “top of it reached to heaven” recalls the description of the tower of Babel (11:4). Jacob may have seen a ziggurat. See notes 11:1–9 and 11:5.

earth . . . heaven . . . ascending and descending. Jacob’s dream of a meeting place between heaven and earth points forward to Jesus Christ, the God-Man who reunites heaven and earth (John 1:51 and note). Through Christ, the only “mediator between God and men” (1 Tim. 2:5), we have access to the Father (Eph. 2:18).